Jan. 11, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL^ 



23 



too ripe when I extracted, would candy or granulate within 

 a day or two in the tank. What was the probable cause ? 

 I never have noticed this occurring- with the early honey for 

 years. It is very annoying and laborious to have to spade 

 the honey out of the tank and dissolve it by heat or the 

 solar extractor, in order to fill it in tin cans for market. I 

 presume the extreme dryness of vegetation is the immediate 

 cause. How would you remedy it ? 



2. Please illustrate the safest and cheapest method of 

 feeding needy colonies without exciting robbing or drown- 

 ing? 



3. Do you think fertilization of queens in confinement 

 is a possibility to produce a certain variety of bees ? Or, is 

 it best to import a tested queen ? 



4. Foul brood has done its ravages in Southern Califor- 

 nia apiaries. A treatise on this subject, and remedy, if 

 there is any except extermination, would be welcome. 



I think that 60 colonies of mine are safe to winter thru, 

 and we all hope, with sufficient winter rains, that next 

 spring will refund us for our severe losses. Calif. 



Answers. — 1. There is a great difference in the granu- 

 lating of honey from different plants. Some kinds yield 

 honey that will continue liquid a year or years ; the honey 

 from most plants will granulate in the course of the follow- 

 ing winter ; while some kinds will begin to granulate a few 

 days after being gathered. I don't know the reason for it, 

 and never heard of any reason. Neither do I know of any 

 remedy. 



2. I know of no safer nor more satisfactory method than 

 to use the Miller feeder. The feeder is put on the hive the 

 same as a super, and putting on the one will no sooner start 

 robbing than putting on the other. When your feeders are 

 all on and left uncovered, you can go around and put in 

 each the amount of dry sugar you desire up to IS pounds, 

 and the dry granulated sugar will no more start robbing 

 than so much sand. Then you can go around and pour on 

 cold water without danger of robbing and cover up the 

 feeders. After the sugar has been dissolved by the water, 

 then the robbers will get in their work if the feeder is not 

 carefully covered. 



A cheaper way is bj' the crock-and-plate plan. Take a 

 common stone crock (a gallon crock is a good size), fill it -'4 

 full of sugar, or less, as you desire. Put in as many pints 

 or pounds of water as of sugar, cover the crock with a sin- 

 gle thickness of flannel or woolen cloth, or with S or 6 thick- 

 nesses of cheese-cloth ; lay over this a dinner-plate upside 

 down, put one hand under the crock and one over the plate, 

 quickl)' turn the whole thing upside down, and place over 

 the frames of the hive with an empty hive-body about it, 

 and covered up so no robbers can get in from outside. With 

 either of these plans the feeding must be done before cold 

 weather ; better not later than September. If you are so 

 unfortunate as to need to feed in winter, and have no combs 

 of hone}', lay cakes of candj' over the frames, and cover up 

 warm. 



3. I have no faith in fertilization in confinement. At 

 different times in the past there were reports of success, but 

 the reports lackt confirmation in the way of having the 

 thing repeated in the same way afterward. Get a good 

 queen to start with, and run your chances of pure fertiliza- 

 tion, altho it would be better to have one choice queen for 

 drones and another from which to rear queens. 



4. Such a treatise is already on the market in Dr. How- 

 ard's pamphlet on foul brood, which can be had from the 

 office of the American Bee Journal for 25 cents. 



Apartment and Department— Alfalfa. 



1. How do you tell the two different apartments — the 

 brood apartment and the surplus apartment ? 



2. Does alfalfa bloom make good honey ? Calif. 



Answers. — 1. It is not strange that there should be 

 some uncertainty as to the proper meaning of the word 

 " apartment " as used in bee-culture. In the first place the 

 words "apartment" and "department" are not infre- 

 quently confused. An apartment is a separate room or 

 place, usually separated by some sort of a partition from 

 other apartments. A department is something separate as 

 to character rather than place ; as the dry goods depart- 

 ment and the grocery department of a country store, or of a 

 department store. The two departments may be in one 

 apartment, and one department may fill several apart- 

 ments. Everything pertaining to the brood in any way 

 may be said to belong to the brood department, no matter 

 in what part of the hive it is ; and what pertains to the sur- 



plus may be said to belong to the surplus department, no 

 matter in what apartment it may be. 



The word " apartment " is the one most commonly used 

 in bee-keeping, and it is not easy to keep it exactly straight. 

 There is generally no difficulty in distinguishing a pig-pen 

 from a bed-chamber, but in an Irishman's shanty with the 

 pig sleeping under the bed (as reported) the distinction is 

 not so clear. So the brood apartment may be sharply sepa- 

 rate from the surplus apartment ; as in the case of a box- 

 hive with glass boxes for surplus on top, in which case the 

 top of the hive separates the brood apartment below from 

 the surplus apartment above. Or, there may be no such 

 thing as two separate apartments, the brood and the sur- 

 plus being all in the same apartment ; as was the case with 

 the old-fashioned straw-skeps, or even a box-hive with no 

 surplus boxes on top. 



The general rule is that the lower story is the brood 

 apartment, everything above con.stituting the surplus apart- 

 ment. There may be little or no real partition between the 

 two apartments, just as in the case of two rooms in a house 

 with large folding-doors or portieres between, there can 

 scarcely be said to be a partition, still the apartments are 

 considered separate. 



2. In many parts of the West, as Utah, Colorado, etc., 

 alfalfa is one of the best honey-plants. In the East reports 

 seem to give it no standing whatever as a honey-plant. In 

 at least some parts of California its reputation is good. 

 Wherever it does yield honey, the character of the honey is 

 excellent, with many being considered as having no equal. 



Preparing Bees for Moving. 



I have 48 colonies of bees that I have to move not later 

 than March 1. They are in a cellar, bottom-boards off, cov- 

 ers sealed down. How can I best succeed in moving them 

 about 7 miles ? How ventilate, and how fasten the 

 bottoms on ? 



Would a strip nailed on each corner of the hives, and 

 also nailed into the edge of the bottom-board, be a good 

 way ? I have thought so — what do you say to that ? 



Iowa. 



Answer. — The first thing is to let the bees have a flight 

 after being taken from the cellar before anj' attempt at 

 moving them. To take them directly from the cellar to 

 their new place would be somewhat disastrous, in all proba- 

 bility. The weather is usually so cool on the first of March 

 that very little ventilation is needed. Wirecloth at the reg- 

 ular entrance will be sufficient. The particular way of fas- 

 tening it on depends upon the kind of hive and entrance 

 you have. One way lately given in Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture is probably as easy as any : Cut a piece of wirecloth 

 as long as the entrance is wide, and two or three times as 

 wide as the entrance is deep. Bend it V-shape the entire 

 length ; push the sharp end of the V into the entrance and 

 drive in a nail near each end to prevent the wirecloth from 

 springing out again. 



Your plan of fastening the bottoms to the hives will be 

 all right. You may like better to use staples. What are 

 called tobacco-staples are all right — a staple about lj4 

 inches wide with legs ?+ inch long. Drive one leg of a 

 staple into the hive and the other into the bottom-board. 



Sweet Clover in Canada. 



When is the best time to sow sweet or white clover, and 

 the kind of soil best suited to it ? Also, will sweet clover 

 suit this northern climate ? There is none here. Ont. 



Answer. — Any time from fall to spring will do. So 

 long as you didn't sow it in the fall, wait till the ground is 

 open in the spring, then roll it into compact soil. One of 

 the best ways is to let stock tread in sweet clover seed. Any 

 soil will do, especially poor lime soil. Sweet clover does 

 well in Canada. 



" The Hum of the Bees in the Apple-Tree Bloom " is 

 the name of the new bee-keeper's song — words by Hon. 

 Eugene Secor and music by Dr. C. C. Miller. This is 

 thought by some to be the best bee-song yet written by Mr. 

 Secor and Dr. Miller. It is, indeed, a " hummer." We can 

 furnish a single copy of it postpaid, for 10 cents, or 3 copies 

 for 25 cents. Or, we will mail a half-dozen copies of it for 

 sending us one new yearly subscription to the American 

 Bee Journal at $1.00. 



